Work will begin soon to repair the railroad crossing on Heaton Street or U.S. 35, in Knox.

Mayor Rick Chambers told the city council this week that he received several emails in the past two weeks from the Indiana Department of Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railroad. They’re waiting until the asphalt plants open up in April in order to form a plan of attack. There is no timeline of when the work will be complete. They want to repair the crossing with a hot asphalt mix instead of applying cold patch. The hot mix will ensure a more permanent fix.

Knox Mayor Rick Chambers has been getting several complaints from motorists about the U.S 35 railroad crossing in the city.

A resident recently came into City Hall with an estimate to replace a hubcap lost as a result of the rough crossing. Mayor Chambers told the resident that the City does not maintain that crossing. The railroad crossing is under the jurisdiction of Norfolk Southern and the Indiana Department of Transportation. Those experiencing damage need to contact those two entities to submit a claim or report a complaint.

The Knox City Council discussed the rather rough railroad crossing on Heaton Street during their meeting last week.

Councilman Jeff Berg said that he was in contact with a representative of INDOT’s Railroad Safety Coordinator to discuss the crossing. He said INDOT will be making an effort to come to a solution for that crossing. Norfolk Southern representatives have also been notified of the issues that drivers are having when they advance through the crossing.

Charges are being reviewed against a suspect who allegedly abandoned his vehicle on railroad tracks in the 300 block of Linwood Street in LaPorte County.

On Tuesday evening, Norfolk Southern railroad officials told police that a vehicle was stuck in the middle of the tracks, just east of the Detroit Street crossing. When police arrived at 8:19 p.m. CT, they observed a car sitting abandoned in the middle of the tracks. An Amtrak train was stopped on the south track, just inches from the vehicle that had bottomed out on four track rails on a center track.

A railroad crossing in Starke County will be closed for two weeks to allow Norfolk Southern to perform some minor crossing repairs. According to Railroad Coordinator Sandy Parisian, Norfolk Southern will be closing the crossing on County Road 1000 East, between county roads 225 North and 250 North, from Nov. 4 through Nov. 18.

Travelers on county roads 600 East and 200 East, both south of State Road 8 in Starke County, will have to find an alternate route of travel if they need to drive over the railroad crossings. According to highway superintendent Rik Ritzler, both of these crossings will be closed for the duration of this week and are expected to open before Monday, but there are no official detours in place.

A train accident in Knox over the weekend brought traffic to a halt, as U.S. 35 and other streets were closed for nearly four hours while the wreckage was cleared. Fortunately, no injuries were reported; the train crashed into an unmanned service truck on the rails at around 9:15 a.m.

The Starke County Sheriff’s Department said a Norfolk Southern service truck was performing maintenance on the tracks Saturday morning when a train rolled through, and a miscommunication caused the train to crash into the truck. Luckily, the repairman was outside the vehicle making track repairs when the accident occurred.

A train accident in Knox has caused some community concern, but officials say the accident resulted in no injuries and they are working on getting the area cleaned up.

The Starke County Sheriff’s Department told WKVI that a Norfolk Southern service truck was performing maintenance on the tracks when a train rolled through town. The conductor reportedly thought the service truck was out of his way but miscalculated, striking the service truck.

The Norfolk & Southern Railroad has announced plans to close the railroad crossing on State Road 8, approximately 1.7 miles east of Knox from 8 a.m. on Aug. 27 through Sept. 10 at 7 p.m.

A detour has been proposed from U.S. 35 to U.S. 30, then to State Road 23.

INDOT Railroad and Utilities Engineer Mike Essling told WKVI that while this length of time for a railroad to be closed is slightly longer than the norm, the railroad company will coordinate efforts on restoring access to the tracks as quickly as possible.

This kind of maintenance is routine, and all emergency services, school corporations, and other affected parties will be notified of the track’s closure. Until the crossing is re-opened, drivers are encouraged to take the detour and plan accordingly.

Crews remain on the scene of a train derailment near Ligonier which spilled nearly 200,000 pounds of molten sulfur and toluene. The car that was carrying the molten sulfur had burst into flames after the derailment of 27 cars of the 59-car train. Crews have smothered the burning train cars with clean soil, and officials say that once the fires are completely extinguished, they will get rid of the dirt and remove the cars.

Several thousands of dollars worth of railroad metals were retrieved from the Starke County Recycling Company this morning after Knox City Police and the Norfolk Southern Railroad Police officers executed a search warrant at that location. This is part of an ongoing investigation of a theft report that was filed Saturday night and led to the arrest of Patrick Sobieck and Richard Selva.